Explore how a Gen Zer funds her travels by waiting tables and volunteer exchange sites like Worldpackers.
Courtesy of Celeste Cox
Waiting tables a few months at a time is enough for Celeste Cox to fund her travels to bucket list destinations.
The 26-year-old has been to 10 countries since embarking on what she intended to be a gap year in 2021. She's managed to do all of it by working as a waitress in New York City in between her adventures.
When she's in the US, she lives rent-free with her dad, but Cox told Business Insider that the main reason she can spend several months out of the year abroad is her choice of accommodations.
Instead of splurging on hotels or Airbnbs in touristy areas, Cox said she works in exchange for free meals and places to stay. The journey hasn't always been easy, but she said it's worth it.
"I honestly think this is the best thing for me to do in life right now," Cox told BI.
She graduated from Hunter College in 2020, but COVID-19 travel restrictions delayed her plans for a gap year. As the world slowly opened back up in 2021, Cox made her first trip to Puerto Rico, where she volunteered as a housekeeper for six weeks.
Her next trip — this time to the Dominican Republic — was over two months long. By then, Cox was sure she wanted to keep traveling this way.
"I'd met a bunch of travelers who were taking long backpacking trips for six months, or nine months, or 12 months at a time," she said.
She was inspired to take her own "long-term backpacking trip."
Here's how she managed to stay for months in places like Brazil, Colombia, and Italy with less than $10,000 in her bank account.
Courtesy of Celeste Cox
Cox finds her accommodations through Workaway and Worldpackers, which she learned about from a friend. The two sites offer travelers a chance to stay with a host and get free meals in exchange for their labor.
The programs have become popular among Gen Zers on TikTok who document their stays and promote it as a world-traveling hack for young people without the funds for lavish trips.
Expect to pay an annual fee to join either site. For Workaway the fee starts at $49 per year for an individual and goes up for couples. Worldpackers also offers a $49 per year plan and a higher-tier $99 plan with access to more benefits.
Cox receives a discounted rate since Worldpackers recently made her an ambassador.
It works similarly to Airbnb. Travelers can browse various volunteer opportunities offered by different hosts and read reviews from past guests.
"At most places, the agreement is generally from 25 to 30 hours a week," Cox said.
During those hours, Cox has cleaned the bathrooms at hostels, worked on a remote Italian farm, and worked as a nanny for one hostel manager.
Courtesy of Celeste Cox
By using programs like Workaway and Worldpackers, Cox said she's practicing more "intentional, purposeful travel" that allows her to establish a connection to the countries she travels to.
When she stays in a city, it's "almost always for at least a month." She prefers Latin American countries since she speaks Portuguese and Spanish, and US dollars typically stretch further in those places.
Although this style of travel is popular among Gen Z on TikTok, Cox recommends it to travelers of all ages, even if they're worried about their finances.
"A lot of the people I've met, especially in Latin America, don't have a lot of money at all," she said. "But they're still traveling, and they have the richest lives because they're meeting all these people and learning all these cultures."
Her routine works by saving as much as she can while waiting tables in NYC as her departure date to the next country creeps closer. Then, she takes her savings — ranging between $5,000 and $8,000 — and lives off of it in foreign countries for the rest of the year.
Courtesy of Celeste Cox
One of her first adventures ended abruptly with a traumatizing bedbug infestation at a hostel in the Dominican Republic, Cox told BI, and it wasn't the last time the pests overtook her belongings.
According to Cox, it comes with the territory.
"I've gotten robbed before, I've gotten bedbugs many times, I've slept on floors," she said.
Having your own room is a rare luxury, and Cox recalled a time when she was the only woman in a 12-bed room at a Brazilian hostel. At her most recent post on a farm in Sardinia, Italy, she said she worked long hours, ate meals that had very little protein, and had a language barrier with the host.
While hosts might be responsible for housing, it's on the traveler to arrange transportation. In emergencies, Cox said Worldpackers will pay for immediate relocation.
Still, Cox believes the experience is worth it.
"These travels have taught me so much about life and have really given me so much life experience," Cox said,
